The U.S. Secret Service just admitted that it closed its investigation into the cocaine found in the White House without conducting interviews.
This information comes from a new report that NBC News published on Friday.
Friday was the day after the Secret Service announced that it was closing its investigation into the cocaine that was discovered at the White House - without figuring out who the responsible party is.
NBC's new report is the latest report to cast doubt on the sincerity of the Secret Service's investigation.
NBC News has a fairly solid source for its report: "a spokesman for the agency," that is, a spokesman for the Secret Service. It was this individual - Anthony Gugliemi - who admitted to the outlet that the investigation was concluded without interviews.
Per the outlet:
The Secret Service on Thursday announced it had closed its investigation into who left a small packet of cocaine in the White House without finding the culprit, and a spokesman for the agency told NBC News it did so without conducting interviews.
Interviewing potential suspects is usually an essential element of an investigation. So, the question is why the Secret Service did not interview anyone.
According to Gugliemi, the answer is that there were too many people to interview. NBC reports:
Secret Service spokesman Anthony Gugliemi said the agency determined that interviewing all 500 people could be a strain on resources, might infringe upon civil liberties, and would likely be fruitless without corresponding physical evidence tying any person to the drugs.
Does this excuse sound a bit flimsy to you?
The Secret Service released a statement on Thursday indicating that it concluded its investigation without being able to determine the source of the cocaine.
The agency said:
On July 12, the Secret Service received the FBI’s laboratory results, which did not develop latent fingerprints and insufficient DNA was present for investigative comparisons. Therefore, the Secret Service is not able to compare evidence against the known pool of individuals.
In addition, the Secret Service claimed that "there was no surveillance video footage found that provided investigative leads or any other means for investigators to identify who may have deposited the found substance in this area."
Accordingly, the Secret Service said that it is closing the investigation "due to a lack of physical evidence."
Many are highly skeptical about this, suggesting that - given the circumstances - the likelihood is that the Secret Service does know who did it but that it is covering up for the individual. The fact that the agency did not interview anyone is only going to add to this skepticism.
